The present invention relates generally to a wearable device used to remove a cap off a bottle. A bottle opener is generally a tool that enables the removal of bottle caps from bottles. The bottle opener can also include corkscrews used to remove cork or plastic stoppers from wine bottles. The bottle opener is necessary due to the snug fit that a bottle cap often has on a bottle. A bottle cap is generally affixed to the rim of the neck of a bottle by being pleated or crimped around the rim of the bottle.
Typically, a bottle opener is a specialized lever with a rectangular or rounded opening in one end and a solid handle large enough to be gripped between the thumb and forefingers on the other. The opening contains a lip that is placed under the edge of the bottle top, pulling it off when an upward force is applied to the handle end of the opener. Most bottle openers are easily transported, but are unable to be stored in a convenient place that is quickly accessible by a user. This can be very problematic for those users in restaurants, bars, and sporting events, who generally resort to storing the opener in their pockets and/or waistbands of their clothing or at a particular location in the bar or restaurant that makes quick and efficient access difficult.
Those known wearable bottle openers are generally incorporated onto a garment, e.g., a glove, or a piece of jewelry, e.g., a watch or ring. They are mostly placed fixed in position on the user such that a user does not have the ability to conceal it from the viewing public, if desired. Many of those known wearable bottle openers are positioned on the user, e.g., on the user's fingers, such that they are difficult to manipulate over a cap of a bottle. Any available devices that provide the user the ability to use his or her palm as a means to grip or support the bottle opener when in use also include their own disadvantages. For example, these devices are fixed in a position of the user's palm such that the user is continually required to hold the device in his or palm, unless the device is removed, with the wearable element of assembly. Therefore, when not in operation, the user loses some of the utility and effectiveness of his or her hand. When used in a bar or restaurant setting, inhibiting the utility of a user's hand is also extremely problematic. As such, having a bottle opener that is discrete and practical when not in operation, yet functional when in use, is lacking in those known devices.
Some known wearable bottle openers include a wristband with an attached member having a rounded opening. The wrist is a joint or articulation between the forearm and the hand. Wristbands are encircling strips worn on the wrist, made from a variety of materials depending on the purpose. A wrist band includes a length wound at least one turn around the wrist, and including pieces of wrist Velcro attached at a predetermined position so as to press and fix the wrist in a state of being wound around the wrist. These wristbands provide similar disadvantages as those other known devices. For example, they are difficult to manipulate the rounded opening over a cap of a bottle, because it cannot be readily visualized by the user and/or the user is not accustomed to opening bottles utilizing only their wrists. Additionally, the exertion of continual force on the user's wrist by the bottles that are opened causes pain to many users and expedites degenerative failure of tissues and bones found in the wrist.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.